Sparrow’s iPhone 5 Update Gets Rejected By Apple

Shortly after the iPhone 5 made its debut back in September, the team behind Sparrow announced that it would be updating its email client for the handset’s new 4-inch display — despite its decision to cease development of the app after joining forces with Google.

It seems we could be waiting some time for that update, however: Sparrow has revealed that Apple rejected its latest release for violating its App Store terms.

Sparrow developer Dinh Viet Hoa announced on Twitter on Tuesday: “Apple called to tell me that Sparrow has been rejected. Our app will be removed from the appstore if we don’t submit a new version soon.”

“We managed to get a rich text edition [and] the keyboard appeared without the user [having] to tap on ios5. We’re fighting with apple to get the update of the app through the AppStore validation process.”

It’s an odd reason for the update to be rejected. It seems Apple’s problem is with Sparrow’s Rich Text support, and so Viet Hoa says that the next update will be for iOS 6 devices only. However, Rich Text support is built into Apple’s own Mail client in iOS 5. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem for iPhone 5 users, however, who will already be running iOS 6.

Sparrow’s decision to deliver iPhone 5 support to its app was somewhat surprising. Back in July, the team announced that it was to cease development of its popular software and provide bug fixes only after being acquired by Google. Hopefully, Apple’s decision to reject the latest Sparrow update won’t encourage the team to just call it a day.

Deals of the Day

Good. Sparrow developers deserve to have it pulled after they screwed over their customers by selling out.

Mystakill

Good. Sparrow developers deserve to have it pulled after they screwed over their customers by selling out.

And, yet, they’ve released (or tried to in this case) at least two updates since stating that they wouldn’t produce any…

chaos_disorder

Good. Sparrow developers deserve to have it pulled after they screwed over their customers by selling out.

Yeah, damn those Sparrow developers for taking a tremendous financial opportunity that was presented to them. I hope their families are ashamed of the security and peace of mind they now have.

WireBender4279

After I get my Marble White Note II, I will be leaving the Apple orchard for an “out of walled” experience. IT seems like every new Apple product is less user friendly and more deeply tied down.

DS_Champion

It’s disheartening to see this happen. This is a crew that just wants to make sure that their product works efficiently for all their users, and it just isn’t getting through. Would this still have happened if Google hadn’t bought them?